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A novel approach is used to reverse engineer polymeric parts in a low cost, non‐destructive manner. Solids created from polymers with an index of refraction matching that of an immersion liquid are reverse engineered using a CCD camera. Serial images are taken as the part is immersed into the liquid or taken out of the liquid. The images are then used to create digital solid models from the polymeric physical model. The concept of the process, the hardware as a proof‐of‐concept demonstration, and results to understand the accuracy and limitations of the process are described.

Al‐alumina interconnected phase composites were processed using the direct fused deposition process. These materials with tailored microstructures can find applications as structural materials with gradient properties.

In this process, feedstock material with fused silica as a starting material was compounded at a high shear mixer and then extruded as a filament using a single screw extruder. Extruded filaments were used with a commercial fused deposition modeler, FDM 1650, to process controlled porosity green ceramic structures. Porous green ceramic preforms were subjected to binder removal and sintering cycles in furnace air. Controlled porosity sintered ceramic structures were infiltrated with Al 5052 metal by pressureless reactive metal infiltration to form an in situ Al‐alumina structured composite.

The main advantage for this approach is to control distribution of both metal and ceramic phases in the composite. During metal infiltration good bonding was observed between the metal and the ceramic phases. Composites were tested under both quasi‐static and dynamic shock loading to evaluate their mechanical properties. Compression strength of these composites was 689±95 MPa.

This paper describes application of the direct fused deposition process for fabrication of ceramic/metal composites where both macrostructure as well as microstructure can be controlled simultaneously. The paper also focuses on one of the potential application area for 5052‐Al alloy.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the feasibility of direct fabrication of lunar/Martian regolith simulant parts, in a freeform environment, using Laser Engineering Net Shaping (LENS™) – an additive manufacturing technology.

Bulk lunar regolith simulant structures were fabricated using a LENS™‐750. Dense parts without any macroscopic defects were produced at a laser power of 50W, a scan speed of 20 mm/s, and a powder feed rate of 12.36 g/min. The laser processed parts were characterized using X‐ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscope and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy to evaluate the influence of laser processing on the microstructure, constituent phases and chemistry of lunar regolith simulant.

A combination of laser parameters resulting in a 2.12 J/mm² laser energy appeared to be ideal for generating a melt pool necessary for lunar regolith powder deposition without excessive liquid pool spreading and cracking of solidified parts. The results show that LENS™ based laser processing transformed crystalline regolith into nanocrystalline and/or amorphous regolith structures as a result of complete melting followed by resolidification. Laser processing also resulted in marginal changes in the composition of the regolith.

Establishment of a lunar/Martian outpost necessitates the development of methods to utilize in situ mineral resources for various construction and resource extraction applications. Fabrication technologies are critical for habitat structure development, as well as repair and replacement of tools and parts at the outpost. Current experimental results presented in the paper clearly demonstrate that net shape regolith simulant parts can be fabricated using LENS™ by exploiting its capabilities.

The purpose of this paper was development of patient-specific femoral prosthesis using rapid prototyping (RP), a part of additive manufacturing (AM) technology, and comparison of its merits or demerits over CNC machining route.

The customized femoral prosthesis was developed through computed tomography (CT)-3D CAD-RP-rapid tooling (RT)-investment casting (IC) route using a stereolithography apparatus (SLA-250) RP machine. A similar prosthesis was also developed through conventional CT-CAD-CAM-CNC, using RP models to check the fit before machining. The dimensional accuracy, surface finish, cost and time involvement were compared between these two routes.

In both the routes, RP had an important role in checking the fit. Through the conventional machining route, higher-dimensional accuracies and surface finish were achieved. On the contrary, RP route involved lesser time and cost, with rougher surface finish on the prosthesis surface and less internal shrinkage porosity. The rougher surface finish of the prosthesis is favourable for bone ingrowths after implantation and porosity reduce the effective stiffness of the prosthesis, leading to reduced stress shielding effect after implantation.

As there is no AM machine for direct fabrication of metallic component like laser engineered net shaping and electron beam melting in our Institute, the metallic prosthesis was developed through RP-RT-IC route using the SLA-250 machine.

The patient-specific prosthesis always provides better fit and favourable stress distribution, leading to longer life of the prosthesis. The described RP route can be followed to develop the customized prosthesis at lower price within the shortest time.

The described methodology of customized prosthesis development through the AM route and its advantages are applicable for development of any metallic prostheses.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a practitioners' perspective on financial challenges prevalent in the Indian hospitality industry. The paper also makes an attempt to give useful insights into possible solutions to the issues raised.

The study assimilates data from senior finance professionals from a spectrum of hotels in India. The study involves the collection of primary data through structured interviews.

The study highlights that some of the financial challenges faced by the Indian hospitality industry include high financing costs, multiplicity of taxes charged, licensing and legal issues, working capital issues and eroding margins. The study also gives some useful insights to the possible solutions to the challenges identified.

This paper provides some very useful qualitative analysis of the contemporary challenges and their possible solutions prevalent in the Indian hospitality sector. The findings will be useful for hoteliers, policy makers and researchers to deliberate on the issues raised. However, it does not involve any quantitative analysis.

This study makes a sincere attempt to bring forth some real life issues, challenges and solutions which would be a good value addition to the existing literature.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of rural energy transition in cooking options in India. Although India is aiming to achieve a double-digit economic growth, a large share of rural households still rely on firewood for cooking which not only has serious repercussions of increasing indoor pollution but also has a concomitant adverse effect on women and child morbidity and mortality. However, transition to clean energy options like improved cookstoves for these households may not be necessarily linear. It is often driven or resisted by latent factors such as caste, trust, social capital, information flow, social positioning of clusters that are deeply embedded in the social and cultural norms and values specific to local rural contexts. This has been shown in the present case study that pertains to eight villages in the remote and deprived Purnea district of Bihar and the need for internalizing them in the macro energy policymaking has been established in the paper.

The paper applies a macro foundation research that is complemented by micro foundation tools of fuzzy cognitive mapping-based mental model framework to achieve the purpose of the study. Focused-group discussions and interviews are also conducted to establish the narrative of the paper.

Caste, socio-political position, asset structure, remoteness, culture and technology access affect rural households’ decision making capability that is related to shifting from using the traditionalmeans of firewood and biomass based traditional cookstoves for cooking to adopting improved clean cooking stoves which will enable the transition toward the use of clean rural energy in the eight villages in Bihar chosen for this study.

The findings of the paper have larger implications for the broader macro energy policymaking in the country by taking into account the non-linear, latent factors of village contexts.

The research will help energy policymakers in decision-making and will guide the implementation process of national- and state-level policies on rural energy transition in India.

The findings of the paper will help the smoother implementation of national- and state-level rural energy transition policies for cooking, creating developmental dividends for rural Indian households.

The research is new with regard to the application of non-deterministic fuzzy cognitive mapping-based mental model approach to contribute to the country’s national- and state-level rural energy transition policies.

While the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on logistics and supply chain management (SCM) is recently much discussed, this is hardly linked to emerging economies and base of the pyramid (BoP) settings. The paper aims as offering a framework linking different conceptual elements to each other for explaining how ICT enables sustainable value creation in emerging economy supply chains (SCs).

The paper builds on conceptual reasoning linking constructs from the different fields to each other.

Using conceptual reasoning linking constructs, six elements are identified: (1) SC flows, (2) BoP challenges and (3) ICT services as starting points, and environmental conditions driving sustainable value creation. The application of ICT within BoP SC operations drives the process of sustainable value creation by enabling new ways of (4) electronic business (e-business) transactions and (5) SSCM behaviors. This leads to (6) sustainable value for businesses using ICT applications and their respective stakeholders.

Empirical testing by collecting field data in emerging economy contexts would be demanded to address the limitation of building on conceptual reasonings.

The framework provides various SC-related measures driving e-business value creation for managers of businesses, charity organizations and policymakers in emerging communities.

Understanding the use of smartphones and other mobile devices for businesses and their supply chains in emerging markets would have wide ranging social implication addressed in the sustainable value creation of the framework offered.

The conceptual framework brings different elements together offering insights into ICT applications in BoP SCs. Linking SCM, ICT and BoP to each other is a novel contribution having wider implications for the future development of emerging economies.

This paper aims to provide relevant knowledge about entrepreneurship and women’s leadership in the Indian context. More specifically, it unleashes the veiled challenges as well as success stories of select women entrepreneurs of a developing country to bridge the gap between entrepreneurship theory and practice. It aims to provide directions to the policymakers, educationists, society and families in creating a conducive environment that is essential for the success of women entrepreneurs.

With a qualitative case study approach, data were collected from Tamil Nadu, a southern Indian state which has a maximum number of women entrepreneurs. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to explore the supportive as well as challenging dimensions of their entrepreneurial journey.

Content analysis of the interview transcripts indicated that successful entrepreneurs are opportunity-driven and they focus on innovation, service, generation of wealth and employment. Support from family, especially from fathers or husbands, is as important as the entrepreneurial drive, skills and abilities of an entrepreneur. Success for them is being happy, thriving work, having a happy family, having a great work-life balance and the satisfaction to have served society apart from being independent (economically/ financially). Among India’s societal and cultural realities, women have to conquer many hurdles (both implicit and explicit) in their way concerning the societal attitudes toward women stepping out of the home boundaries and traditional gender role expectations. The silver line is societal attitudes are changing, especially in urban India. There are enough support and encouragement from the family, which helps these women pursue their passion and eventually become a successful leader.

The success stories of women will bring a wave of positive developmental change in India by fostering respect for women in a male-dominated society and flashing the importance of women’s entrepreneurship.

This paper provides a new examination of women entrepreneurs that significantly further the debate about the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles, especially in entrepreneurship in an emerging economy context like India. Apart from the deterrents, it aims to highlight the enablers and motivations to choose this unconventional profession.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss business processes as building‐blocks of organisational capabilities and outsourcing of business processes as a viable management approach to building strategic organisational capabilities.

The paper develops a conceptual framework based on “strategic partnering” to successfully implement “global sourcing” of organisational capabilities and validates this framework using multiple case studies research.

The paper identifies business process management, relationship management and the outsourcing value propositions as the key dimensions for business process outsourcing (BPO) success.

The paper is based on case studies of seven European clients and ten Indian service providers of BPO services. A larger survey of BPO clients and service providers may further strengthen the proposed framework and make the findings more conclusive.

The proposed framework helps both the BPO client and the service provider organisations in understanding the critical role of relationship management in realising the intended BPO service outcomes. It also helps the BPO clients and the service providers to understand the risk and business value implications of BPO value proposition.

The paper addresses a dearth of literature on BPO service provision and establishes the need for dyadic study of BPO services from both the client and the service provider perspective simultaneously for understanding the dynamics of this emerging service sector.

The paper aims to present a framework for integrating the concepts of business continuity and business resilience with the aim of developing a concept of always-on business.

Literature review, conceptual and case-based.

A conceptual model for integrated “always-on business” solution based on continuous comouting technologies, business continuity, disaster recovery, IT/business resilience and several organational frameworks.

Presented framework can be used for integrating business continuity and business resilience in modern digital age; and transforming business systems into “always-on business”.